Competition
for the "Best Job in the World" tough - 200,000
prospective applicants in just 24 hours.
Media Release from Tourism Queensland
13 January 2009
More than 200,000 prospective
applicants for Tourism Queensland's "Best Job in the
World" - a six month $150,000 contract on Hamilton
Island - have visited the
www.islandreefjob.com website in the first 24
hours, Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said.
Ms Boyle said the innovative campaign, which offers
the successful applicant, who can come from anywhere
in the world, the chance to live rent free on
Hamilton Island for six months in a multi-million
oceanfront villa, spend their time exploring the
Islands of the Great Barrier Reef and be paid a
salary of AUD $150,000 - had received an
unprecedented global response.
"This is one of the most ground-breaking tourism
campaigns ever undertaken and while we knew it would
be big, the global response in the first 24 hours
has outstripped even our expectations," Ms Boyle
said.
"The Best Job in the World campaign was launched
internationally on the weekend and in the first 24
hours people have logged onto the website more than
200,000 times, looked at more than a million pages
and already submitted over 200 applications.
"In the UK alone, The Best Job in the World was the
lead story everywhere from the BBC to the Daily
Telegraph, it's been reported on CNN, Sky News and
Reuters and been talked about on major morning
television and radio.
"In one day alone we have reached around 29 million
Brits and achieved $13 million in publicity for
Queensland.
"The gloomy economic outlook combined with the even
gloomier weather at this time of year in the
Northern Hemisphere means the lure of spending six
months on a tropical Queensland Great Barrier Reef
island - and being paid to do it - could not have
been offered at a more perfect time."
Ms Boyle said The Best Job in the World was an
innovative campaign which aimed to position the
Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as a stand-alone
destination and instil the desire for travellers
from around the world to visit Queensland.
She said The Best Job in the World was a genuine job
offer where candidates would have to submit a 60
second video application from which 11 finalists
would be flown from around the world for an intense
interview process on Hamilton Island.
"This is not a competition, it is a genuine job, and
it will be tough for the successful candidate," Ms
Boyle said.
"He or she will be required to live in an oceanfront
villa, undertake a range of activities such as
swimming, snorkelling, bushwalking and exploring the
islands of the Great Barrier Reef.
"They'll need to make friends with the locals and
really get to know the destination and then report
back on their experiences via blogs, video diaries
and media interviews."
Ms Boyle said print ads would appear in the
employment sections of major international
newspapers this week and in Australian press this
Saturday. The ads were also running on a range of
international employment websites and from Saturday
would appear on Australia's seek.com.au and
careerone.com.au job websites.
"In this day and age of cluttered media and
advertising markets, coming up with an innovative
idea that can cut through is increasingly
difficult," Ms Boyle said.
"We have received fantastic support from our tourism
industry, especially the key sponsors Hamilton
Island and Qantas Holidays.
"All of the feedback we have received so far from
international and Australian consumer is that
Tourism Queensland's Best Job in the World is just
that.
"Our predictions are that the Tourism Queensland
recruitment team will be working around the clock to
go through the thousands of applications we expect
to receive."
Information about the job can be found at
www.islandreefjob.com. Applications close on
February 22, the 11 short-listed applicants to be
flown to Hamilton Island for the final interview
process in May and the successful candidate to start
their six month contract in July.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WEBSITE WWW.HAMILTONISLAND.ORG IS NOT CONNECTED WITH TOURISM QUEENSLAND AND IS REPRODUCING THIS MEDIA RELEASE FROM THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF TOURISM QUEENSLAND. CRIKEY, I MIGHT JUST HAVE TO APPLY FOR THE JOB MYSELF!!! Cheers to all, Paul from HamiltonIsland.org!
